1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to synchronization of data between systems, and more specifically, to the use of REST (Representational State Transfer) resources to synchronize data between systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A common application integration scenario is the synchronization of data from one system to another, or the propagation of business objects from one system to another. The usual issues with integration are protocol adaptation and data schema transformation.
A situation, that is usually dealt with at the application or mediation level, is primary key mapping between data stored in one system and the other, i.e., how the data is known and indexed between systems. The usual mechanism for addressing this is for one system (the controlled system) to have data stored with a foreign key, and this foreign key is the primary key on the other system (the controlling system).
Typically, an integration requires either some external key mapping technology to map between primary keys on each system, or the controlled system is directly addressable using the foreign key. However, in the latter case, the controlled system will not have that foreign key when a record is originating in it and is to be propagated to the controlling system, so a further update of the original record on the controlled system is required after it has been created on the controlling system to tie these two keys together at the controlled system.
The vagaries of these different approaches, at the protocol, formatting and key mapping levels, all lead to complex integration processes that understand these specifics and encode the necessary approach in the mediation between the systems based on knowledge of these systems. This leads to system specific integration logic, or very complex general purpose integration logic. The integration specifics become even more difficult when these issues are coupled with integrating systems that may reside on-premise, in a public, or private cloud.